Quiz in Music

Write your answers in a separate sheet.

MUSIC.
1. He composed 4’33.
a. Schoenberg b. Bernstein c. Bartok d. Cage

2. He was the primary exponent of impressionism in music.

a. Glass b. Bernstein c. Debussy d. Cage

3. He wrote his first nationalistic poem, Kossuth.

a. Bartok b. Gershwin c. Debussy d. Glass

4. He is considered as the “father of American Jazz”.

a. Bartok b. Gershwin c. Debussy d. Glass

5. Commercially successful minimalist composer.

a. Varese b. Prokofieff c. Poulenc d. Glass

6. Used the 12-tone system of music.

a. Schoenberg b. Bernstein c. Bartok d. Cage

7. Become famous with his “West Side Story”.

a. Glass b. Bernstein c. Debussy d. Cage

8. A French composer who is also a member of “Les Six”.

a. Varese b. Prokofieff c. Poulenc d. Glass

9. Regarded today as a combination of neo-classicist, avant-garde and nationalist composer.

a. Varese b. Prokofieff c. Poulenc d. Glass

10. He is a member of the “Russian Five”.

a. a. Schoenberg b. Bernstein c. Bartok d. Korsakov

True or False

1. Phillip Glass once served as conductor for New York Philharmonic orchestra.

2. A musical style that piece sounds differently in every performance is called chance music.

3. Leonard Bernstein wrote Kossuth.

4. Gershwin is said to be a “true crossover artist”.

5. Music that uses the tape recorder is called concrete music.

6. Avant-garde means “up-to-date”.

7. Impressionist movement was started in the 20th century in Europe.

8. The impressionist movement in music had its foremost proponents in Debussy and Ravel.

9. Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov composed “Flight of the Bumblebee”.

10. Impressionism made used of whole and semi-tone scale.

LESSON # 1

Quarter I: MUSIC OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The start of the 20th century saw the rise of distinct musical styles that reflected a move away from the
conventions of earlier classical music. These new styles were impressionism, expressionism, neo-
classicism, avant garde music, and modern nationalism.

The distinct musical styles of the 20th century would not have developed if not for the musical genius of
individual composers such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok, Igor
Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofieff, and George Gershwin stand out as the moving forces behind the innovative
and experimental styles mentioned above. Coming from different nations—France, Austria, Hungary,
Russia, and the United States— these composers clearly reflected the growing globalization of musical
styles in the 20th century.

IMPRESSIONISM

 It is a French movement in the late 19th and early 20th century.

 The sentimental melodies and dramatic emotionalism of the preceding Romantic Period (their
themes and melody are easy to recognize and enjoy) were being replaced in favor of moods and
impressions.
 Extensive use of colors and effects, vague melodies, and innovative chords and progressions
leading to mild dissonances.
 Sublime moods and melodic suggestions replaced highly expressive and program music, or music
that contained visual imagery
 Impressionism was an attempt not to depict reality, but merely to suggest it.
 It was meant to create an emotional mood rather than a specific picture.
 In terms of imagery, impressionistic forms were translucent and hazy, as if trying to see through a
rain-drenched window.
 The sounds of different chords overlapped lightly with each other to produce new subtle musical
colors. Chords did not have a definite order and a sense of clear resolution.
 Other features include the lack of a tonic-dominant relationship which normally gives the feeling
of finality to a piece, moods and textures, harmonic vagueness about the structure of certain
chords, and use of the whole-tone scale.
 Most of the impressionist works centered on nature and its beauty, lightness, and brilliance.

GUIDE QUESTIONS

1. What is Impressionism in music?

2. What are the characteristics of Impressionist music?
3. What is the focus of Impressionist music?

LESSON # 2

Composers of Impressionist Music

The impressionistic movement in music had its foremost proponents in the French composers Claude
Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Both had developed a style of composing adopted by many 20th century
composers

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)

 One of the most important and influential of the 20th century composers
 Primary exponent of the impressionist movement and the focal point for other impressionist
composers.
 Born in St. Germain-en-Layein France on August 22, 1862. His early musical talents were
channeled into piano lessons. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1873.
  Debussy’s mature creative period was represented by the following works: Ariettes Oubliees,
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, String Quartet, Pelleas et Melisande (1895)—his famous
operatic work that drew mixed extreme reactions for its innovative harmonies and textural
treatments.
 La Mer (1905)—a highly imaginative and atmospheric symphonic work for orchestra about the
sea Images, Suite Bergamasque, and Estampes—his most popular piano compositions; a set of
lightly textured pieces containing his signature work Claire de Lune (Moonlight)

His musical compositions total 227 which include orchestral music, chamber music, piano music, operas,
ballets, songs, and other vocal music. Debussy spent the remaining years of his life as a critic, composer,
and performer. He died in Paris on March 25, 1918 of cancer at the height of the First World War.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)

 Born in Ciboure, France to a Basque mother and a Swiss father. He entered the Paris
Conservatory at the age of 14 where he studied with the eminent French composer Gabriel Faure.
During his stint with the school where he stayed until his early 20’s, he had composed a number
of masterpieces.
 The compositional style of Ravel is mainly characterized by its uniquely innovative but not atonal
style of harmonic treatment. It is defined with intricate and sometimes modal melodies and
extended chordal components. It demands considerable technical virtuosity from the performer
which is the character, ability, or skill of a virtuoso—a person who excels in musical technique or
execution.
Ravel’s works include the following:
 Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899), a slow but lyrical requiem
 Jeux d’Eau or Water Fountains (1901)
 String Quartet (1903)
 Sonatine for Piano (c.1904)
 Miroirs (Mirrors), 1905, a work for piano known for its harmonic evolution and imagination,
 Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), a set of demonic-inspired pieces based on the poems of Aloysius
Bertrand s arguably the most difficult piece in the piano repertoire.
 Daphnis et Chloe (1912), a ballet commissioned by master choreographer Sergei Diaghilev that
contained rhythmic diversity, evocation of nature, and choral ensemble.
 La Valse (1920), a waltz with a frightening undertone that had been composed for ballet and
arranged as well as for solo and duo piano.
 The two piano concerti composed in 1929 as well as the violin virtuosic piece
Ravel was a perfectionist and every bit a musical craftsman. He strongly adhered to the classical
form, specifically its ternary structure. A strong advocate of Russian music, he also admired the
music of Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, and Mendelssohn. He died in Paris in 1937.

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874–1951)

 Born in a working-class suburb of Vienna, Austria on September 13, 1874. He taught himself
music theory but took lessons in counterpoint.
 German composer Richard Wagner influenced his work as evidenced by his symphonic poem
Pelleas et Melisande, Op 5 (1903), a counterpoint of Debussy’s opera of the same title.
 Schoenberg’s style was constantly undergoing development. From the early influences of
Wagner, his tonal preference gradually turned to the dissonant and atonal, as he explored the use
of chromatic harmonies.
 His music is also extremely complex, creating heavy demands on the listener. His works were
met with extreme reactions, either strong hostility from the general public or enthusiastic acclaim
from his supporters.
 Schoenberg is credited with the establishment of the twelve-tone system.

His works include the following:

 Verklarte Nacht, Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11
 Pierrot Lunaire,
 Gurreleider
  Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night, 1899), one of his earliest successful pieces, blends the
lyricism, instrumentation, and melodic beauty of Brahms with the chromaticism and construction
of Wagner.

His musical compositions total more or less 213 which include concerti, orchestral music, piano music,
operas, choral music, songs, and other instrumental music. Schoenberg died on July 13, 1951 in Los
Angeles, California, USA where he had settled since 1934.

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)

 Igor Stravinsky stands alongside fellow-composer Schoenberg, painter Pablo Picasso, and literary
figure James Joyce as one of the great trendsetters of the 20th century.
 He was born in Oranienbaum(now Lomonosov), Russia on June 17, 1882.
 Stravinsky’s early music reflected the influence of his teacher, the Russian composer Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov. But in his first successful masterpiece, The Firebird Suite (1910), composed
for Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet, his skillful handling of material and rhythmic inventiveness went
beyond anything composed by his Russian predecessors.
 He added a new ingredient to his nationalistic musical style. The Rite of Spring (1913) was
another outstanding work.
 A new level of dissonance was reached
 Sense of tonality was practically abandoned. Asymmetrical rhythms successfully portrayed the
character of a solemn pagan rite.
 When he left the country for the United States in 1939, Stravinsky slowly turned his back on
Russian nationalism and cultivated his neo-classical style.
 Stravinsky adapted the forms of the 18th century with his contemporary style of writing. Despite
its “shocking” modernity, his music is also very structured, precise, controlled, full of artifice,
and theatricality.
 Other outstanding works include the ballet Petrouchka (1911), featuring shifting rhythms and
polytonality, a signature device of the composer.
 The Rake’s Progress (1951), a full-length opera, alludes heavily to the Baroque and Classical
styles of Bach and Mozart using the harpsichord, small orchestra, solo and ensemble numbers
with recitatives stringing together the different songs.

Stravinsky’s musical output approximates127 works, including concerti, orchestral music, instrumental
music, operas, ballets, solo vocal, and choral music. He died in New York City on April 6, 1971.

Guide Questions
1. Why it is said that Debussy is the proponent and focal point of Impressionist music?
2. Compare and differentiate the styles of the different Impressionist composers.

LESSON #3

OTHER MUSICAL STYLES

 Primitivism Primitivistic music is tonal through the asserting of one note as more important than
the others. New sounds are synthesized from old ones by juxtaposing two simple events to create
a more complex new event.
 Primitivism has links to Exoticism using materials from other cultures.
 Nationalism using materials indigenous to specific countries, and Ethnicism through the use of
materials from European ethnic groups.
 It eventually evolved into Neo-classicism.
 Two well-known proponents of this style were Stravinsky and Bela Bartok.
BELA BARTOK (1881–1945)

 Born in Nagyszentmiklos, Hungary (now Romania) on March 25, 1881, to musical parents.
 He started piano lessons with his mother and later entered Budapest Royal Academy of Music
in1899.
 He was inspired by the performance of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra to write his
first nationalistic poem, Kossuth in 1903.
 He was a concert pianist as he travelled exploring the music of Hungarian peasants.
 In 1906, with his fellow composer Kodaly, Bartok published his first collection of 20 Hungarian
folk songs. For the next decade, although his music was being badly received in his country, he
continued to explore Magyar folk songs. Later, he resumed his career as a concert pianist, while
composing several works for his own use.
 As a neo-classicist, primitivist, and nationalist composer, Bartok used Hungarian folk themes and
rhythms. He also utilized changing meters and strong syncopations. His compositions were
successful because of their rich melodies and lively rhythms. He admired the musical styles of
Liszt, Strauss, Debussy, and Stravinsky.
 He eventually shed their influences in favor of Hungarian folk and peasant themes. These later
became a major source of the themes of his works. Bartok is most famous for his Six String
Quartets (1908–1938). It represents the greatest achievement of his creative life, spanning a full
30 years for their completion. The six works combine difficult and dissonant music with
mysterious sounds.
 The Concerto for Orchestra (1943), a five-movement work composed late in Bartok’s life,
features the exceptional talents of its various soloists in an intricately constructed piece.
 The short and popular Allegro Barbaro (1911) for solo piano is punctuated with swirling rhythms
and percussive chords.
 Mikrokosmos (1926–1939), a set of six books containing progressive technical piano pieces,
introduced and familiarized the piano student with contemporary harmony and rhythm.

His musical compositions total more or less 695 which include concerti, orchestral music, piano music,
instrumental music, dramatic music, choral music, and songs. In 1940, the political developments in
Hungary led Bartok to migrate to the United States, where he died on September 26, 1945 in New York
City, USA.

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)

 Igor Stravinsky stands alongside fellow-composer Schoenberg, painter Pablo Picasso, and literary
figure James Joyce as one of the great trendsetters of the 20th century.
 Born in Oranienbaum(now Lomonosov), Russia on June 17, 1882. Stravinsky’s early music
reflected the influence of his teacher, the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. But in his
first successful masterpiece, The Firebird Suite (1910), composed for Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet,
his skillful handling of material and rhythmic inventiveness went beyond anything composed by
his Russian predecessors. He added a new ingredient to his nationalistic musical style.
 The Rite of Spring (1913) was another outstanding work. A new level of dissonance was reached,
and the sense of tonality was practically abandoned. Asymmetrical rhythms successfully
portrayed the character of a solemn pagan rite.
 When he left the country for the United States in 1939, Stravinsky slowly turned his back on
Russian nationalism and cultivated his neo-classical style.
 Stravinsky adapted the forms of the 18th century with his contemporary style of writing. Despite
its “shocking” modernity, his music is also very structured, precise, controlled, full of artifice,
and theatricality.
 Other outstanding works include the ballet Petrouchka (1911), featuring shifting rhythms and
polytonality, a signature device of the composer.
 Rake’s Progress (1951), a full-length opera, alludes heavily to the Baroque and Classical styles of
Bach and Mozart using the harpsichord, small orchestra, solo and ensemble numbers with
recitatives stringing together the different songs.
Stravinsky’s musical output approximates 127 works, including concerti, orchestral music, instrumental
music, operas, ballets, solo vocal, and choral music. He died in New York City on April 6, 1971
Neo-Classicism

 Neo-classicism was a moderating factor between the emotional excesses of the Romantic period
and the violent impulses of the soul in expressionism.
 A partial return to an earlier style of writing, particularly the tightly knit form of the Classical
period, while combining tonal harmonies with slight dissonances.
 Adopted a modern, freer use of the seven-note diatonic scale.
 The classical three-movement format is combined with ever-shifting time signatures, complex but
exciting rhythmic patterns, as well as harmonic dissonances that produce harsh chords.
 The neo-classicist style was also used by composers such as Francis Poulenc, Bela Bartok, Igor
Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, and Sergei Prokofieff.

SERGEI PROKOFIEFF (1891–1953)

 Regarded today as a combination of neo-classicist, nationalist, and avant garde composer. His
style is uniquely recognizable for its progressive technique, pulsating rhythms, melodic
directness, and a resolving dissonance.
 Born in the Ukraine in 1891, Prokofieff set out for the St. Petersburg Conservatory equipped with
his great talent as a composer and pianist.
 His early compositions were branded as avant garde and were not approved of by his elders, he
continued to follow his stylistic path as he fled to other places for hopefully better acceptance of
his creativity.
 His contacts with Diaghilev and Stravinsky gave him the chance to write music for the ballet and
opera, notably the ballet Romeo and Juliet and the opera War and Peace.
 Much of Prokofieff’s opera was left unfinished, due in part to resistance by the performers
themselves to the seemingly offensive musical content.
 He became prolific in writing symphonies, chamber music, concerti, and solo instrumental music.
 He also wrote Peter and the Wolf, a lighthearted orchestral work intended for children, to appease
the continuing government crackdown on avant garde composers at the time.
 He was highly successful in his piano music, as evidenced by the wide acceptance of his piano
concerti and sonatas, featuring toccata-like rhythms and biting harmonic dissonance within a
classical form and structure.
 Other significant compositions include the Symphony no. 1 (also called Classical Symphony), his
most accessible orchestral work linked to the combined styles of classicists Haydn and Mozart
and neo-classicist Stravinsky.
 He also composed violin sonatas, some of which are also performed on the flute, two highly
regarded violin concerti, and two string quartets inspired by Beethoven.
Prokofieff’s musical compositions include concerti, chamber music, film scores, operas, ballets, and
official pieces for state occasions. He died in Moscow on March 15, 1953.

FRANCIS POULENC (1899–1963)

 Francis Poulenc was a member of the group of young French composers known as “Les Six.”
 He rejected the heavy romanticism of Wagner and the so-called imprecision of Debussy and
Ravel.
 His compositions had a coolly elegant modernity, tempered by a classical sense of proportion.
 He was also fond of the witty approach of Satie, as well as the early neo-classical works of
Stravinsky.
 He was a successful composer for piano, voice, and choral music. His output included the
harpsichord concerto, known as Concert Champetre (1928); the Concerto for Two Pianos (1932),
which combined the classical touches of Mozart with a refreshing mixture of wit and exoticism in
the style of Ravel; and a Concerto for Solo Piano(1949) written for the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.
  Poulenc’s vocal output, meanwhile, revealed his strength as a lyrical melodist. His opera works
included Les Mamelles de Tiresias (1944), which revealed his light-hearted character; Dialogues
des Carmelites (1956), which highlighted his conservative writing style; and LaVoix
Humane(1958), which reflected his own turbulent emotional life.
Poulenc’s musical compositions total around 185 which include solo piano works, as well as vocal solos,
known as melodies, which highlighted many aspects of his temperament in his avant garde style. He died
in Paris on January 30, 1963.

Other members of “Les Six”

 Georges Auric (1899–1983) wrote music for the movies and rhythmic music with lots of energy.
 Louis Durey (1888–1979) used traditional ways of composing and wrote in his own, personal
way, not wanting to follow form.
 Arthur Honegger (1882–1955) liked chamber music and the symphony. His popular piece Pacific
231 describes a train journey on the Canadian Pacific Railway.
 Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) was a very talented composer who wrote in several different styles.
Some of his music uses bitonality and polytonality (writing in two or more keys at the same
time). His love of jazz can be heard in popular pieces like Le Boeuf sur le Toit which he called a
cinema-symphony.
 Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) was the only female in the group. She liked to use dance
rhythms. She loved children and animals and wrote many works about them. She also wrote
operas, concerti, and many works for the piano.

Avant Garde Music

 Closely associated with electronic music,

 Avant garde movement dealt with the parameters or the dimensions of sound in space.
 The avant garde style exhibited a new attitude toward musical mobility, whereby the order of note
groups could be varied so that musical continuity could be altered.
 Improvisation was a necessity in this style, for the musical scores were not necessarily followed
as written.
 From the United States, there were avant garde composers such as George Gershwin and John
Cage with their truly unconventional composition techniques; Leonard Bernstein with his famed
stage musicals and his music lectures for young people; and Philip Glass with his minimalist
compositions. Through their works, these composers truly extended the boundaries of what music
was thought to be in earlier periods.
 The unconventional methods of sound and form, as well as the absence of traditional rules
governing harmony, melody, and rhythm, make the whole concept of avant garde music still so
strange to ears accustomed to traditional compositions.

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898–1937)

 Born in New York to Russian Jewish immigrants. His older brother Ira was his artistic
collaborator who wrote the lyrics of his songs. His first song was written in 1916 and his first
Broadway musical La La Lucille in 1919.
 He also composed Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), which
incorporated jazz rhythms with classical forms. His opera Porgy and Bess (1934) remains to this
day the only American opera to be included in the established repertory of this genre.
 Despite his commercial success, Gershwin was more fascinated with classical music. He was
influenced by Ravel, Stravinsky, Berg, and Schoenberg, as well as the group of contemporary
 French composers known as “Les Six” that would shape the character of his major works— half
jazz and half classical.
 Gershwin’s melodic gift was considered phenomenal, as evidenced by his numerous songs of
wide appeal.
 He is a true “crossover artist,” in the sense that his serious compositions remain highly popular in
the classical repertoire, as his stage and film songs continue to be jazz and vocal standards.
  Considered the “Father of American Jazz,” his “mixture of the primitive and the sophisticated”
gave his musician appeal that has lasted long after his death. His musical compositions total
around 369 which include orchestral music, chamber music, musical theatre, film musicals,
operas, and songs. He died in Hollywood, California, U.S.A. on July 11, 1937.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990)

 Born in Massachusetts, Bernstein endeared himself to his many followers as a charismatic

conductor, pianist, composer, and lecturer.
 His big break came when he was asked to substitute for the ailing Bruno Walter in conducting the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert on November 14, 1943. The overnight success of
this event started his reputation as a great interpreter of the classics as well as of the more
complex works of Gustav Mahler.
 Bernstein’s philosophy was that the universal language of music is basically rooted in tonality.
This came under fire from the radical young musicians who espoused the serialist principles of
that time.
 Although he never relinquished his musical values as a composer, he later turned to conducting
and lecturing in order to safeguard his principles as to what he believed was best in music.
 He achieved pre-eminence in two fields: conducting and composing for Broadway musicals,
dance shows, and concert music.
 Bernstein is best known for his compositions for the stage. Foremost among these is the musical
West Side Story (1957), an American version of Romeo and Juliet, which displays a tuneful, off-
beat, and highly atonal approach to the songs.
 Other outputs include another Broadway hit Candide (1956) and the much-celebrated Mass
(1971), which he wrote for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, D.C.
 He composed the music for the film On the Waterfront (1954).
 As a lecturer, Bernstein is fondly remembered for his television series “Young People’s
Concerts” (1958–1973) that demonstrated the sounds of the various orchestral instruments and
explained basic music principles to young audiences, as well as his “Harvardian Lectures,” a six-
volume set of his papers on syntax, musical theories, and philosophical insights delivered to his
students at Harvard University.
 His musical compositions total around 90. He died in New York City, USA on October 14, 1990.

PHILIP GLASS (1937– )

 One of the most commercially successful minimalist composers is Philip Glass who is also an
avant garde composer.
 He explored the territories of ballet, opera, theater, film, and even television jingles. His
distinctive style involves cell-like phrases emanating from bright electronic sounds from the
keyboard that progressed very slowly from one pattern to the next in a very repetitious fashion.
 Aided by soothing vocal effects and horn sounds, his music is often criticized as uneventful and
shallow, yet startlingly effective for its hypnotic charm.
 Born in New York, USA of Jewish parentage, Glass became an accomplished violinist and flutist
at the age of 15. In Paris, he became inspired by the music of the renowned Indian sitarist Ravi
Shankar. He assisted Shankar in the soundtrack recording for Conrad Rooks’ film Chappaqua.
 He formed the Philip Glass Ensemble and produced works such as Music in Similar Motion
(1969) and Music in Changing Parts (1970), which combined rock type grooves with perpetual
patterns played at extreme volumes.
 Glass collaborated with theater conceptualist Robert Wilson to produce the four-hour opera
Einstein on the Beach (1976), an instant sell-out at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. It
put minimalism in the mainstream of 20th century music.
 He completed the trilogy with the operas Satyagraha (1980) and Akhnaten (1984), based on the
lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, and an Egyptian pharaoh. Here, he
combined his signature repetitive and overlapping style with theatrical grandeur on stage. His
musical compositions total around 170.
  Today, Glass lives alternately in Nova Scotia, Canada and New York, USA.

Modern Nationalism

 A looser form of 20th century music development focused on nationalist composers and musical
innovators who sought to combine modern techniques with folk materials.
 In Eastern Europe, prominent figures included the Hungarian Bela Bartok and the Russian Sergei
Prokofieff, who were neo-classicists to a certain extent. Bartok infused Classical techniques into
his own brand of cross rhythms and shifting meters to demonstrate many barbaric and primitive
themes that were Hungarian—particularly gypsy—in origin. Prokofieff used striking dissonances
and Russian themes, and his music was generally witty, bold, and at times colored with humor.
 Together with Bartok, Prokofieff made extensive use of polytonality, a kind of atonality that uses
two or more tonal centers simultaneously. An example of this style is Prokofieff’s Visions
Fugitive.
 In Russia, a highly gifted generation of creative individuals known as the “Russian Five” —
Modest Mussorgsky, Mili Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, and Nikolai Rimsky
Korsakov—infused chromatic harmony and incorporated Russian folk music and liturgical chant
in their thematic materials.

21ST CENTURY MUSIC TRENDS

 Music scholars predict that the innovative and experimental developments of 20th century
classical music will continue to influence the music of the 21st century.
 With so many technical and stylistic choices open to today’s composers, it seems there is no
obstacle to their creativity and to the limits of their imagination. And yet, this same freedom that
has allowed such varied musical experimentation in recent years has also caused contemporary
classical music—or music utilizing the classical techniques of composition—to lose touch with
its audience and to lose its clear role in today’s society.
 Presently, modern technology and gadgets put a great impact on all types of music. However,
what remains to be seen is when this trend will shift, and what the distinct qualities of emerging
classical works will be.

Questions to ponder.

1. What group of people inspired many of Bartok’s compositions?

2. Which Russian composer created the music for the ballet The Firebird?
3. Who is considered the foremost impressionist?
4. What kind of musical style is attributed to Schoenberg and Stravinsky?
5. Who was the target audience of Prokofieff’s Peter and the Wolf?

20TH CENTURY MUSICAL STYLES: ELECTRONIC and CHANCE MUSIC

 The musical styles that evolved in the modern era were varied. Some of these were short-lived,
being experimental and too radical in nature, while others found an active blend between the old
and the new.
 New inventions and discoveries of science and technology lead to continuing developments in the
field of music.
 Technology has produced electronic music devices such as cassette tape recorders, compact discs
and their variants, the video compact disc (VCD) and the digital video disc (DVD), MP3, MP4,
ipod, iphone, karaoke players, mobile phones and synthesizers. These devices are used for
creating and recording music to add to or to replace acoustical sounds.
NEW MUSICAL STYLES

Electronic Music

 The capacity of electronic machines such as synthesizers, amplifiers, tape recorders, and
loudspeakers to create different sounds was given importance by 20th century composers like
Edgar Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Mario Davidovsky.
 Music that uses the tape recorder is called musique concrete, or concrete music. The composer
records different sounds that are heard in the environment such as the bustle of traffic, the sound
of the wind, the barking of dogs, the strumming of a guitar, or the cry of an infant.
 These sounds are arranged by the composer in different ways like by playing the tape recorder in
its fastest mode or in reverse.
 In musique concrete, the composer can experiment with different sounds that cannot be produced
by regular musical instruments such as the piano or the violin.

EDGARD VARESE (1883–1965)

 Edgard (also spelled Edgar) Varèse was born on December 22, 1883. He was considered an
“innovative French-born composer.”
 However, he spent the greater part of his life and career in the United States, where he pioneered
and created new sounds that bordered between music and noise.
 The musical compositions of Varese are characterized by an emphasis on timbre and rhythm. He
invented the term “organized sound,” which means that certain timbres and rhythms can be
grouped together in order to capture a whole new definition of sound.
 Although his complete surviving works are scarce, he has been recognized to have influenced
several major composers of the late 20th century.
 Varèse’s use of new instruments and electronic resources made him the “Father of Electronic
Music” and he was described as the “Stratospheric Colossus of Sound.”
 His musical compositions total around 50, with his advances in tape-based sound proving
revolutionary during his time. He died on November 6, 1965.

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN (1928– )

 Karlheinz Stockhausen is a central figure in the realm of electronic music.

 Born in Cologne, Germany, he had the opportunity to meet Messiaen, Schoenberg, and Webern,
the principal innovators at the time.
 Together with Pierre Boulez, Stockhausen drew inspiration from these composers as he
developed his style of total serialism.
 Stockhausen’s music was initially met with resistance due to its heavily atonal content with
practically no clear melodic or rhythmic sense. Still, he continued to experiment with musique
concrete.
 Some of his works include Gruppen (1957), a piece for three orchestras that moved music
through time and space; Kontakte (1960), a work that pushed the tape machine to its limits; and
the epic Hymnen (1965), an ambitious two-hour work of 40 juxtaposed songs and anthems from
around the world.
 The climax of his compositional ambition came in 1977 when he announced the creation of Licht
(Light), a seven-part opera(one foreach day of the week) for a gigantic ensemble of solo voices,
solo instruments, solo dancers, choirs, orchestras, mimes, and electronics.
 His recent Helicopter String Quartet, in which a string quartet performs whilst airborne in four
different helicopters, develops his long-standing fascination with music which moves in space. It
has led him to dream of concert halls in which the sound attacks the listener from every direction.
 Stockhausen’s works total around 31. He presently resides in Germany.

Chance Music
  Chance music refers to a style wherein the piece always sounds different at every performance
because of the random techniques of production, including the use of ring modulators or natural
elements that become a part of the music.
 Most of the sounds emanate from the surroundings, both natural and man-made, such as honking
cars, rustling leaves, blowing wind, dripping water, or a ringing phone. As such, the combination
of external sounds cannot be duplicated as each happens by chance.

JOHN CAGE (1912–1992)

 John Cage was known as one of the 20th century composers with the widest array of sounds in
his works. He was born in Los Angeles, California, USA on September 5, 1912 and became one
of the most original composers in the history of western music.
 He challenged the very idea of music by manipulating musical instruments in order to achieve
new sounds. He experimented with what came to be known as “chance music.”
 In one instance, Cage created a “prepared” piano, where screws and pieces of wood or paper were
inserted between the piano strings to produce different percussive possibilities. The prepared
piano style found its way into Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes (1946–1948),a cycle of pieces
containing a wide range of sounds, rhythmic themes, and a hypnotic quality.
 His involvement with Zen Buddhism inspired him to compose Music of Changes (1951), written
for conventional piano, that employed chance compositional processes.
 He became famous for his composition Four Minutes and 33 Seconds (4’33"), a chance musical
work that instructed the pianist to merely open the piano lid and remain silent for the length of
time indicated by the title. The work was intended to convey the impossibility of achieving total
silence, since surrounding sounds can still be heard amidst the silence of the piano performance.
 Cage also advocated bringing real-life experiences into the concert hall. This reached its extreme
when he composed a work that required him to fry mushrooms on stage in order to derive the
sounds from the cooking process.
 As a result of his often-irrational ideas like this, he developed a following in the 1960s. However,
he gradually returned to the more organized methods of composition in the last 20 years of his
life.
 More than any other modern composer, Cage influenced the development of modern music since
the 1950s. He was considered more of a musical philosopher than a composer.
 His conception of what music can and should be has had a profound impact upon his
contemporaries. He was active as a writer presenting his musical views with both wit and
intelligence.
 Cage was an important force in other artistic areas especially dance and musical theater.
 His musical compositions total around 229. Cage died in New York City on August 12, 1992.

SUMMARY

 The new musical styles created by20th century classical composers were truly unique and
innovative.
 They experimented with the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, tempo, and timbre in daring
ways never attempted before. Some even made use of electronic devices such as synthesizers,
tape recorders, amplifiers, and the like to introduce and enhance sounds beyond those available
with traditional instruments.
 Among the resulting new styles were electronic music and chance music. These expanded the
concept of music far beyond the conventions of earlier periods and challenged both the new
composers and the listening public.
 As the 20th century progressed, so did the innovations in musical styles as seen in the works of
these composers. From France, Edgard Varese’s use of new instruments and electronic resources
led to his being known as the “Father of Electronic Music” and a description of him as “The
Stratospheric Colossus of Sound.”
  From Germany, there was Karl Heinz Stockhausen, who further experimented with electronic
music and musique concrete. Stockhausen’s electronic sounds revealed the rich musical potential
of modern technology.
 From the United States, there was John Cage with his truly unconventional composition
techniques. Cage’s works feature the widest array of sounds from the most inventive sources.

Guide Questions:
1. Who was the French composer known as the “Father of Electronic Music?
2. What are some of the new musical approaches of Cage?
3. What is meant by musique concrete used by Stockhausen?
4. Give an example of a musical work by Varese, Stockhausen, and Cage.

Performance Activity:

Original Chance and Electronic Music

Rate scores are based on the elements of music such as rhythm, melodic appeal, harmony and texture,
tempo and dynamics, timbre, and overall musical structure.

1. The class will be divided into four groups.

2. Each group will create an original five-minute performance of Chance Music and Electronic
Music (if available) to be performed in class.
3. Your teacher will announce the “Best Performance” award.
4. What was the role of the audience in the performance of Chance music? Explain your answers.

Teacher’s Rating of the Student’s Performance

 Musicianship (60%)
o compositional concepts presented
o musical elements
o technique
 Ensemble coordination (20%)
 Ensemble organization (20%)